Pick vs. Pick And Store when using the - What is the difference?

When setting up your Filestack integration it is important to understand the difference between the pick, pickMultiple, and pickAndStore javascript methods so that you can build the behavior and workflow you want into your application. The main difference between pick (and pickMultiple) and pickAndStore is that pick can generate symbolic links to where the file is originally stored on the web, and pickAndStore will always make a new copy of a file. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. The diagrams below illustrate the how the picker and the resulting filestack links will behave for different uses.

Pick from the cloud

In this case you always have the link to the latest version of the file (a symbolic link). Files can be deleted or lost. For example, if the file comes from Facebook, a user could delete it or change the permissions on the post and break your Filestack link to the file.

Pick from local storage or device

A full copy of the file is created. The Filestack link you receive will link to this copy of the file. Your users will not be able to break this link by changing the original file which was copied.

Since the file being uploaded from a computer or other device needs to live somewhere online in order to be accessed, Filestack will store the file for you if you have not configured any storage options in the developer portal. If custom storage options have been conifigured, Filestack will default to using those options.

Filestack Account without storage configured.

Filestack Account with storage configured.

Pick and Store from the user's cloud, local storage or device

A full copy of the file is created. The Filestack link you receive will link to this copy of the file. Your users will not be able to break this link by changing the original file which was copied.